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Back home, in the land of maniac lilacs. I was overwhelmed about the lilac bush’s scent intensity yesterday morning. I guess after the desert with its softer scents that need to be discovered, the nose has to get used to this oppulence.
And as always when getting home: Work, more work, and before that even more work like washing clothes and replenishing sample stocks of the l’air that is always at the edge of being sold out these days.

Thus, pouring samples today and in order to keep you busy: Here some visual impressions of the last week, very biased, and somewhat cactus focused ;-)

Spring in NY, Manhattan

Joshua Tree shadow at 3 pm

Joshua Tree at around noon

Cactus…

more…

more…

more…

And some desert flowers….

a flowering yucca
and a cactus flower
and something I don’t remember its name…

a honey bird (the little grey bird in the middle)
and a motel…

called Harmony!
ahhhhhh … I want to go back!

Greetings to you all and tomorrow we talk about thoughts on LA…

My internet connection is somewhat shaky…thus: Short greetings from LA, where the sun is shining and where I had a most thrilling evening yesterday. More on Victoria’s blog … indeed: Wow, what an evening for me, too!

Looking forward to yet another great afternoon, evening today and then: Off to Switzerland again, where the sun seems to shine, too.

Greetings from LA and more when I am back in the little land in the middle of Europe that seems to be so far away these days.

Sitting in front of the motel, watching an ever-busy honey sucker, flying around a lovely flowering bush, that does not really smell, there is time to contemplate on New York, with the Cali desert hills in the back, starting to gleam in the evening sun.

New York is an expensive place. Especially if you are somewhat naive, like Swiss guys asking NY police women for the way to Bendel’s. I did and got the answer: ” Honey, I’ll tell you the way right away, but you gonna have to buy me something at Bendel’s!” Being used to Swiss police women, this is not what you would expect. But it is charming.
I said, ” Well, we’ll see…” and got to Bendels without any detour, because NY police women seem to know the way to Bendel.  A nice store, chic and full of perfume goodies in the first floor. So, I thought I could really buy something for Ms NY police woman, and got one of those lovely scented candles, not really watching the price (bad habit) and not watching what I signed with my credit card for (very bad habit), and I managed to get a black American NY police woman quite excited. She would have kissed me in public for sure if she did not wear this official uniform.  I was feeling very happy and enjoyed downtown Manhattan in the sun, with trees flowering and reflecting in thousand mirrors.

On my way back to Brooklyn I organized my papers and realized the price tag  for the scented candle, in its black box, with gold letters around it, that now scents a NY police woman’s house, … and I guess, it must have been a very good candle. Well, at the end of the day, watching the desert, I still think it was worth it. But the next time I go to Bendel I will take some of my perfumes with me, to please NY police women and in order to survive the next credit card invoice.

Greetings from a lovely spot on this planet.

Greetings from a lovely neighbourhood, a beautiful Sunday morning, Brooklyn in the sun under a blue sky.  I forgot to bring my card reader for my digi cam, thus… no pictures in this post, but….some emotions. After yesterday’s LuiLei cocktail, we (Lui, Lei and me) are all still touched.

For me, this was a wonderful evening, with enough time to talk to all perfume lovers coming by, to chat and to hug each other. I am still very touched. I think I am a lucky man. Time to be grateful and thank you all who came by, to sniff and talk, some of you taking such a long ride!
And I am grateful that I got the chance to talk a little bit about how it all started and that we (me) are still a one-man show, trying to do something special, focusing on the scent, focusing very much on what goes into the bottle….
And it was great to do a little dissection of the RĂȘverie, like sniffing the frankincense that goes into the RĂȘverie. There were ah’s and oh’s …for good reason. This is dream stuff and one of these days I will have to do more with it…

But now: Time to go shopping and be a good consumer! Fragrant wishes from NY, Brooklyn.

and soon I’ll be there.
The only challenge now: Falling asleep in the plane to shorten the trip and getting past customs. Expect an irregular post pattern the coming days (…)

And here is another official announcement for the folks living nearby:
Mirroir des Modes and Medieval art&vie and Tauer perfumes are proud to announce a little scent apero, focusing on the RĂȘverie au jardin, sniffing scents, with the perfumer being there and talking a little bit about his newest scent and Egon FĂ€ssler giving a little lecture on a yet to be defined text that fits.

When: May 26, starting at 17.00, until 19.00
Where: Mirroir des modes, 1st floor, Spiegelgasse 29, 8001 Zurich
Contact for questions: Pascal Wehrle, medieval(at)smile.ch, phone 044 252 47 20
Reservations not needed and anyone is invited, drink a glass and sniff.
Please join us for a little day dreaming…
More on Mirroir des modes, a fashion museum featuring fashion from the 20-ies (German site)

More on Medieval art&vie

Somewhere between the bike, waiting  patiently for my return from the gym, and the treatmill going up and down patiently to keep my heart at 142 beat per min, there was time to think and suffer. They say it is good for you and I think it is true, but in weak moments the thoughts tend to circulate around the question what a perfumer needs to worry about his arm muscles…to lift paper strips and add drops into a bottle?

Returning to the dressing room, relieved because the torture is over, immersed into a multitude of body odours, covered by clouds of Axe or something else sporty and some apricot stuff coming from the shower, the thoughts move on to the ideal pre-and post gym scent. Any idea?
Lavender would be great. Light woods, something light, that’s for sure. So ….any light scents in the Tauer portfollio, you ask yourself, and the answer is: no, not yet. One of these days, the treatmill routine might lead to a perfume formula. These days it still leads to complete exhaustion and trembling hands that stop trembling when the knee muscles are asked to bring the bike up there on the hill where a fridge is waiting with cold drinks. At least, with all these body related thougts one tends to forget the misery of a 7 hours meeting day.

Fragrant post-gym greetings

A lovely review on the RĂȘverie au jardin on Victoria’s own blog, sorry….I couldn’t resist spreading the news.

Thank you Victoria!

Couldn’t help this morning posting on Lilac again.

I feel somewhat sorry for my perfume loving friends on the East Coast, getting snow again and being far away from Lilac fragrances. Trust me: It will come to an end soon! Officially, the Zurich Böögg does not really work for the US East coast, but using my super-trooper Swiss NSA agent contacts, I can confirm that the Böögg said: “your spring is to come in about 2 weeks”. View the pictures of this year’s bonefire with the Böögg (the white thing on top, burning and finally exploding…) here (German site). To be precise: The Böögg really says what summer we can expect. This year will be a somewhat average summer (if you believe it in light of this April…..)
Almost drowning in lilac on the balcony this morning, I did a flower inspection with low coffein levels in my blood stream, my nose and camera in my shaking hands. There is something obnoxious in this scent. Overpowering, especially before breakfast, meaning before noon, as I do not eat breakfast.

And there is something sexy, indolic about it, animalic, soft but it is there. Too much for early morning. And there is a green line in it. Somewhat stingy almost, although somewhat hidden by this white flower-linden flower like powder.
(pict: Lilac, from very close, seen April 17 in Zurich)
Looking at a lilac flower and stem in all its details I realized that the hairy little stem fits nicely with the scent impression…hairy animalic indols, hairy and green, and a white innocent little flower….taking over my balcony.

What a wonderful weekend!
Full of fragrant delights, little surprises and lots of sun under a blue sky. This year’s spring here in middle Europe is like a fasttrack to summer, it seems these days. It is already warm enough to sit outside in the evening and watch Venus rise on the horizon behind purple and white lilac flowers. Later, while sitting under a black velvet sky watching the stars and man made lights downtown, invisible waves moved in and out, waves of natural fragrances coming from the lilac bushes, powdery, somewhat reminding in schiff’s base and salicylates with a touch of terpene-based alkohols, like a natural dessert, making me wonder why you bother making perfumes yourself.

Well, I guess reasons are: To go beyond where nature goes, to take nature and set highlights, move perspective, show lines from a different angle, transform natural beauty into man made reflections.

In this sense, there is reason to come up sooner or later with a theme like hyacinth, talked about on this blog quite epically; a hyacinth that is transformed into something man made. Sniffing this hyacinth fragrance (you remember….hyacinth and a mechanic in the background) in between these lilac waves, I remembered Pascal’s smile when he sniffed it the first time, yesterday evening. I wanted to get his opinion and I haven’t sniffed it for a while myself. Thus, we sat together and sniffed and discussed about the mechanic, and almost forgot the reason for his visit…..

Thus, a wonderful weekend and the only bitter drop in this ocean of delights: The perfumer sits on his balcony and thinks about stocks and stuff for X-mas….